What is a Game Marketing Plan and How Can You Tweak It for Your Game?

Marketing is the process of “finding a market” for products – releasing a product to the public and ensuring that enough people know about it to give it a fair chance of success.

Video game marketing is all about ensuring your game has an audience. A lot has to be done to succeed at this, such as figuring out the people who could be interested in the game, the best ways of reaching them, and how to make them care about your game for them to consider playing it.

This article covers everything you need to know about marketing your game to players.

What is a marketing plan, and why do you need one for your video game?

Many games fail because developers often treat marketing as an afterthought and not a crucial part of their development process. The commercial marketplace is big and noisy, and the gaming industry is noisier than most, with thousands of developers and publishers all competing for players' attention. 

This makes it very difficult for the players to notice even the good games because there's a lot of noise to cut through to find the new titles entering the market. Without first gaining publicity, it’s almost impossible for a game developer to get their game downloaded, and that’s where a marketing plan comes in.

A marketing plan is a report that outlines your marketing strategy for the next week, month, year - any chosen period. It captures your marketing objectives and how to reach them. It highlights the tactics you will use to build a following for your brand and how to popularize your game on different platforms.

The gaming market is too competitive for you to succeed by accident. You need a detailed marketing plan to expose your game to a broad audience, and below are the things that should be included in the plan.

What does a marketing plan need?

When creating a marketing plan, ensure to include the following things:

You must start with goals

Set the goals you hope to achieve with your marketing. Without clearly defined goals, your marketing will lack direction, making it difficult for you to convince players to choose your game.

The goals you set should be detailed and achievable, such as getting a set number of downloads by a specific date. Having such goals will keep you focused and inform you if your marketing plan is working or if you need to adjust the plan to reach more people. We recommend creating S.M.A.R.T. goals. Work with a video game marketing agency to set the best goals for your game.

Distribution

You can use different platforms to distribute your game, and you need to identify the ones that can positively impact your game’s sales performance. Steam is one of the platforms that could appeal to you if you’re a PC game because of its large number of users, but you should also consider Epic Games as they are known to give good deals to developers.

You could also consider PS4 or XBOX for console games and Humble Bundle if you are launching a game for the first time and need to get your studio's name out there to gain brand recognition to fuel your upcoming launches. Think about the fans of your game and choose distribution channels that work for them.

Awareness

People cannot buy your game if they don't know it exists in the first place. That's why you need to find the time to make the players aware of it and either take them to your website for more information or direct them to your distribution platforms to download the game.

Press releases, website reviews, contests, and getting featured on top publications are some of the methods you can use to create awareness. The promotional efforts you will use for this exercise will depend on the consumer segment you are targeting.

A beautiful website

Your promotion efforts will probably contain a link to your website to help interested people learn more about your game. For this reason, you need a properly designed and functional website that provides visitors with all the information they need about the game.

Some of the things your website should have include a synopsis of the game, a dev blog, a press kit, and some info about the developers. Engage a digital marketing agency to create a website that will enhance your marketing capabilities.

Demo versions

Demos serve the purpose of helping you get players to purchase the game. It's essential to make sure your demos are fascinating to increase your game's chances of succeeding. If the number of people buying your game after playing the demo is low, you need to adjust it to close more deals.

Check the demo features and time limitations to ensure players have a good experience with the demos. Also, make it easy for players to purchase the game in just a few clicks after playing the demo. These are also great at conventions like PAX.

Results analysis

Your marketing campaign has a lot of moving parts that you need to analyze separately to see which campaigns are producing the desired results and which aren’t. We had earlier talked about the need to set marketing goals for your game, and it's at this stage where you'll measure your campaigns to see how you are faring.

Analyze the results against the set KPIs to see if you are successful, or you need to make changes to improve the overall performance of your campaigns. 

We have explained the importance of analytics when running marketing campaigns in our blog, Why Do Gaming Businesses Need Analytics for Their Games to Succeed?

Optimization

The results analysis will reveal the campaigns that are doing well and those that are not. With this information, you should go ahead and amplify the campaigns that are doing well and modify those that are not. This is what campaign optimization is all about, and you need to do it consistently to ensure you meet the diverse needs of your consumers.

How to make this work for you

To make all of this work, you’ll need the following:

Audience research

Your campaign will perform better when you know more about your audience. A keen understanding of the people you are targeting will give you insights on where to target them and how to refine your messaging to connect with them intimately.

Build user personas that describe the players most like to download your game. Once you've completed the personas, you'll have a firmer grasp of your target users and how to connect with them. Take a look at games similar to yours to understand your target audience's gaming habits and what they like about those games.

Industry research

You should also study the industry you are in and your competitors to market your game to the masses effectively. This research will help you identify the industry's top-performing games and what makes them popular with players. It'll also help you identify gaps in the industry and how you can modify your game to address them.  

With the results of the industry research, perform a SWOT analysis to know the strengths and weaknesses of your game and the opportunities and threats in the industry. The study will guide you on structuring your marketing plan and the strategies that will help you stand out at launch.

An audience that’s engaged

An engaged audience is key if you want your marketing plan to work. That's why, as a game developer, you need to engage your fans on forums with active blogs and other online communities where gamers can be found. In these engagements, you will be just one of the participants and not a manager as it happens with your social media accounts.

Let the fans take the lead and promote your game. Let them say the things they appreciate about your game since their opinion holds more weight than yours. Some self-promotion is allowed but limit it to providing insights and offering information to those who want to try your game for the first time.

An understanding of your goals

When tackling your marketing plan, you should have a high-level understanding of what you want to achieve. You can have a certain amount as the desired income you want to make from the game. You can also have goals for downloads, purchases, conversion rate, and other things that are important to you.

Understanding your goals will make your marketing plan focused and guide you on the necessary mechanisms to achieve those goals. It will set the foundation for your marketing and set the vision that everyone will be working towards.

A product or demo that is ready to go

Offer a high-quality game that you want players to purchase or a playable demo that players can try before buying the full game. If the game's conversion rate is low, it could mean that what you are offering the players isn't good enough. Ask the players what’s the problem with your game and use the feedback to refine your product.

A low conversion rate doesn't necessarily mean that your game is terrible. It could be that your website hasn't been optimized to make it easy to purchase the game after enjoying the demo. Simplify the acquisition process to ensure players can buy the game in just a few steps. Also, make sure your product has been optimized for the platforms you are using to distribute it.

A way to make your plan work

With everything set, you now need a way to make your plan work. Digital marketing strategies are ideal for reaching gamers who spend most of their time online. Below are some of the methods you should consider;

Influencers

The people you target follow specific social media stars that you need to bring on board for your marketing campaigns. Identify the platforms where they reside and reach out to them for a campaign. 

Different types of influencers can help you connect with your users, but the best are micro-influencers who are specialists in a particular niche and actively engage with their followers. Finding the right influencer is not easy, and that's why most brands work with video game marketing companies to identify influencers who match their goals and values.

Learn more about picking the best influencer in our blog over at Atisfyreach: How to Choose the Best Influencer for Your Business.

Or, want to skip all the messing around and create instant influencer campaigns? Atisfyreach has got your back. Our platform uses AI and machine learning to find the best fit influencers for your campaign needs, all you need to do is sign up, create a contract and add your budget - we'll do the rest. From finding the right personalities to managing payments and performance reports, we've got your back over at Atisfyreach.

Google Ads

Advertising on Google's Display Network will help you reach many people with your brand messages. Your ads will be displayed to a highly-targeted audience, which will help you create awareness for your brand without spending too much money.

Social media marketing

Your fans are on social media, and as such, marketing on social is a great way to connect with them. Facebook is one of the best assets for social media marketing, with its Look-Alike audiences perfect for targeting users who might be interested in your game. 

We have explained more on how to improve your Facebook Ads campaigns in our blog, How to Optimize Your Facebook Ads for Maximum ROI.

Content marketing

Publish great content on your website and social media pages to keep your fans engaged. Use a mixture of high-quality images, videos, blogs, and infographics to let people know about your game and other relevant industry news. Have a consistent publishing schedule to give your followers a reason to come back over and over again.

Marketing plans for a whole company vs. marketing plans for a product

A marketing plan for the whole company includes activities intended to promote the brand to the consumers. It's not product-specific, and the main objective of such a plan is to make people aware of the brand for them to consider its products when making a purchase.

A product's marketing plan is more specific and functions to promote a particular product to the masses. Coca-Cola has a company-wide marketing plan that it uses to promote itself as the best brand for refreshments and soft drinks. It also has individual marketing elements for the different products it offers, and this is how you should approach your marketing.

You can have a marketing plan for the whole company, but you also need detailed plans for your products. Use your game's beautiful art, characters, and story in the game marketing plan. This strategy will make your game visible to games and give it a decent chance of success.

The ultimate guide to game marketing

Hope you enjoyed this article! For more insider game marketing information, check out The Ultimate Guide to Game Marketing: Everything You Need to Know.

Gamers will not buy your game if they don't know that it has been released. You'll have to market it properly to get the attention of gamers who have a lot of options when it comes to the titles they can play.

Making a basic game marketing plan is easy. But making one that is powerful requires a lot of work. Game Marketing Genie is here to help. As a video game marketing agency, we have the skills and expertise to promote your game to the right audience. Get in touch today, and let's help you build a following for your game.

Are you struggling to attract users for your game? Take a look at our marketing strategy to get started.